Did you grow up with LEGO video games? Then you'll love this week's talk on Thursday!

We've also got Virtual Games & Cake on Friday - see the recipe below for something to enjoy then...

If you're following along with our puzzles, there is a correction to last week's solution at the end of this newsletter.

Talk - "The History of LEGO Video Games" by David Norman - 19:15, Thu 12/11

We'll post a YouTube Premiere link in Slack (and on our calendar) shortly before the talk is scheduled to begin. This is a recording of a talk given in person last academic year, so there will not be questions with the speaker on Discord for this talk.

In the past 22 years, LEGO Video Games have become an important and rather unique genre in themselves. In this talk, we will look at how they have changed over time, the different styles and directions that have been attempted, and their cultural impact.

Virtual Games & Cake - 19:00, Fri 13/11 - HackSoc Discord (The Pod)

Join us in adapting our age-old Boardgames and Cake to a virtual setting in our Discord server, where we check in with each other and play games including Jackbox and Uno!

Unfortunately, we can’t bring and share cake, but we can make our own and post them on Slack.

This week, we have a Masala (Chai) Mug Cake!

Ingredients

• Basic mug cake base:

  • 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp plain flour
  • 4 tbsp sugar (I like to use half brown, half white)
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp milk (or milk substitute)
  • 2 tbsp fat (butter or neutral oil such as sunflower)
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder (not to be confused with baking soda)
  • 1 lid (about 1/4-1/2 of a tsp) vanilla extract

• Masala flavour:

  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 cardamom pods
  • a generous grinding of black pepper (at least 5 grinds of a pepper grinder)

Method

1. Start by preparing the plain mug cake base:

   1. Add the fat to the mug, if using butter melt it in the microwave before continuing (this will take only a few seconds).
   2. If using butter add the sugar next to avoid the butter resolidifying when the milk is added, mixing well.
   3. Next add the milk and the vanilla extract (if using), mixing well again.
   4. Finally mix in the remaining dry ingredients a bit at a time so as not to spill.

2. For the Masala flavouring:

   1. Add the ground spices to the cake, making sure they're mixed throughout.
   2. Next take the two cardamom pods and crush them (you may want to use a rolling pin or similar, or ideally a pestle and mortar but they're not common for students to have). Take the cardamom from inside the pods and discard the pods themselves. Finally crush the cardamom for as long as you can be bothered, large peices won't be an issue (as long as you like cardamom), then add the crushed cardamom to the mug (mixing as usual).
   3. Finally grind the black pepper in and mix one final time.

3. Cooking:

   1. As with most mug cakes, cooking time will vary based on microwave. It should take between 1-2.5 minutes. It shouldn't be taken out before the 1 minute mark unless you have a very strong microwave or it may sink.

The solution to the puzzle "The Crystal Maze" given in last week's newsletter was incorrect. The solution which should have been provided is:

TODO PASTE THE IMAGE HERE

Sorry about this! Well done if you spotted it, though :)

Make sure you're in HackSoc's Slack workspace! We have over 200 members, and it's free to join the conversation, so sign up now!

If you're joining us for any of our virtual events, make sure you're also in our Discord server.

Have a great week,

Aaron 🤖